Five Things I Learned About Henry Graves By Reading "A Grand Complication" By Stacy Perman

April 12, 2013

Stacy Perman's New Book, A Grand Complication (Courtesy Stacy Perman, A Grand Complication ) Obsessive. Persistent. Relentless. These are just some of thewords I would use to describe Stacy Perman, author of the recently publishedbook A Grand Complication: The Race toBuild the Worlds Most Legendary Watch. When she first called me three years ago to discussHenry Graves, Jr. (while I was working for Patek Philippe USA), Iadmit I thought she was a bit crazy to be taking on such a project until I satdown with her, that is. A few months later, at the Four Seasons New York we got together and she showed mesome of the extraordinary information and documents she had dug up on themysterious Mr. Graves and his watch collecting. I was amazed.?The treasurehunt to discover new information about Graves had begunWe soon became friends and Stacy and I spent countless hoursand numerous adventures uncovering the 'secrets of Henry Graves. Jr. I wasquickly humbled by the depth of her understanding of the man who arguablyhelped make Patek Philippe the greatest watchmaking company of the 20th centuryand beyond. Henry Graves, Jr. and his wife Florenceon the grounds of their 10-acre Irvington estate Shadowbrook (Courtesy Stacy Perman, A Grand Complication) I eagerly awaited the publication of this book about the duelbetween James Ward Packard and Henry Graves, Jr. and their quest to own themost complicated watches ever made. Upon finally getting a copy of the book this past February, I was able to delve into the world ofPackard and Graves and to discover facts and learn about new watches that Inever knew existed. Stacy writes about these two collectors as if she knew thempersonally C and you might be surprised to learn these two gentlemen had athing or two in common with present day collectors. I recently asked Stacy to tell us about five of the mostsurprising facts she learned in her quest to understand Henry Graves, Jr., the manwho turned horology on its head. Henry Graves, Jr.?playing a game of tennis on the court he had carved out part of the woodland on Eagle Island (Courtesy Stacy Perman, A Grand Complication) 1. ?HenryGraves, Jr. shared more than just a name with his father Henry Graves, Sr.; thepair possessed a fine sense of connoisseurship, a taste for Chinese porcelains,and a deep bond. The elder Graves was also an accomplished orchid breeder whoregularly exhibited many of his specimens around the world. In something of atribute to his son, Henry Sr. named one of his hybrid species of ladysslippers after him, the Cypripedium HenryGraves Jr. The flower earned an award of merit from the Royal HorticulturalSociety. Henry Graves, Jr.? piloting his50-foot motorboat the Eagle on Upper Saranac Lake, New York (Courtesy Stacy Perman, A Grand Complication) 2. ?Graves wasan intensely competitive sportsman. At Eagle Island, his 32-acre Great Camp inthe Adirondacks (purchased from former US Vice President Levi P. Morton in1910), Graves maintained a fleet of boats including his favorite, thefifty-foot Eagle. Although hisspeedsters were the talk of the camping colony, during the summer of 1911, herefused to let anyone but his mechanic view the Eagle until the annual end-of-season regatta. It was onlythen that he unveiled the boat and its new super-charged engine, bringing himto spectacular triumphover his chief rival on the lake, the Olympic swimming champion CharlesDaniels. Henry Graves, Jr. and his four children at their Eagle Island Camp (Courtesy Stacy Perman, A Grand Complication) 3. ?Graves bankrollednumerous expeditions undertaken by his youngest son George Coe Graves II, an intrepidexplorer and big game hunter (many of his trophies lined the lodges of EagleIsland). In 1929, Graves financed the Thorne-Graves Arctic Expedition to thePolar ice caps on behalf of the Field Museum in Chicago in search of thePacific walrus. The seven specimens captured at the edge of the Arctic canstill be viewed today in the Field Museums Marine Mammals Hall. Courtesy Vacheron Constantin 4. Graves spent the summer of 1928 with his wife Florence traveling acrossEurope, and while in Geneva he read the Reportof the Observatoire for 1927-28 and became utterly obsessed with a VacheronConstantin tourbillon chronometer awarded the First First Prize in the timingcompetition. While corresponding with Vacheron throughout the summer he wasalso made aware of, but ultimately declined, a unique skeletal watch,exceptionally thin with a dial of rock crystal and a fourteen-carat gold movement. Unknown to Graves, his horological rival James Ward Packard had commissioned hisown skeletonized Vacheron with a fourteen-carat gold movement, encased in platinum,rimmed in sapphires, and with hands that spelled out his initials. In somerespects, it was the watch that got away, and another opportunity to trump hisrival. Henry Graves, Jr. at home at Shadowbrook (Courtesy Stacy Perman, A Grand Complication) 5. ?Despitethe fact that Graves was a member of New York society and his name regularlyappeared in the newspapers society pages, he preferred to stay out of thelimelight. Remarkably, he maintained a fierce privacy in a bold-faced age. I amconvinced that were it not for his extraordinary watch collection C and itsmasterpiece, the Supercomplication, crafted by Patek Philippe C he would havebeen another figure lost in the margins of history.If interested in hearing more about the race between two of the greatest watch collectors to ever live, Stacy Perman's A Grand Complication is available on Amazon right here.